FTA with UAE to boost exports of Punjab sports goods, Baddi pharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 16

Exports of sports goods from Punjab and pharmaceutical products from Baddi are poised to gain from the free trade agreement with the UAE which will be signed on Friday at a virtual summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al Nahyan, sources said here.

India’s first free trade agreement in 10 years has a focus on promoting exports of goods to the UAE that are labour-intensive with the duty in several such sectors scheduled to fall to zero after the signing of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).

India is currently negotiating eight FTAs with the focus of all of them to boost exports of labour intensive manufacturing and the easy migration of skilled professionals for employment. Other sectors that will also receive a boost besides sports goods are textiles and gems and jewellery.

Pharma producers will fund exporting easier because both sides have agreed that UAE will automatically give access within 90 days of filing the application if the generic product has been approved by drug regulators of developing countries such as the US, the EU, Japan or Australia.

This will be the fastest negotiated FTA which was launched only in September 2021 and involved three physical meetings and several virtual ones. The UAE has so far invested $ 75 billion in India and, in a mark of proximity, stores its strategic petroleum reserves in Indian caverns.

The agreement is significant from a geo-economic viewpoint. The UAE serves as the entrypoint to the Arab markets as well as North Africa. It will also help in giving momentum to the ‘Economic Quad of the West’ between India, UAE, Israel and the US.

After a virtual meeting between their Foreign Ministers last year, this grouping could hold an in-person version in the coming months to give more concrete shape to the idea. The UAE is also a market for Indian products as it hosts about 35 lakh Indians or about one-third of the expatriate population.

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